🔒Branford developer MB Financial expands across CT with ambitious redevelopment projects

Early this year, Branford-based developer MB Financial Group approached Enfield town officials with tentative plans to convert the massive, vacant MassMutual office complex on the town’s northern edge into apartments. The biggest question on Economic and Community Development Director Aaron Marcavitch’s mind was whether the group had the capability to pull off such a large-scale repositioning. The 65.5-acre property includes 472,000 square feet of office space, a 452,000-square-foot parking garage, day-care building and even a helipad. Shortly before reaching out to Enfield, MB Financial paid $3.75 million for the former WWE headquarters in Stamford, where it plans to convert the 94,000-square-foot office building into luxury apartments. That project signaled to Enfield officials that the company is no stranger to ambitious undertakings. “Almost on the heels of that, they came knocking,” Marcavitch said. “It was like: if these are the guys who are doing that project, these are guys who can get it done.” Marcavitch said follow-up interactions have reinforced his early confidence. The developer has been punctual and detailed in its plans, he said. “This is a group that has experience and knowledge and comes with some good ideas,” Marcavitch said. MB Financial has become one of the busiest developers in the state, lining up an array of projects across Connecticut and beyond. In May, after early conversations with Enfield officials, MB Financial paid $3.99 million for the MassMutual complex. The developer plans to convert the existing office buildings into 178 apartments, add a new 129-unit building, and construct 157 townhomes. The plan calls for reusing the existing parking lot and reopening the day care, while also adding 12,000 square feet of commercial space and amenities including a dog park, clubhouse, pools, pickleball courts and walking trails.

“It’s a prototypical deal we have been going after,” said MB Financial President and CEO Michael Massimino. “Over the past decade, we have been repositioning a lot of older buildings.” Massimino learned construction from his father, a New Haven-based framing contractor, starting at age 9. He launched his first construction company as a college freshman studying construction management at Boston’s Wentworth Institute of Technology. After graduation, he partnered with his brothers, Anthony and Mario. Today, MB Financial and its affiliates employ about 50 people, with projects in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. With its development load picking up, the firm will shortly hire 10 more marketing, sales and leasing staff, Massimino said.

Project pipeline

In Clinton, MB Financial is pursuing a multiphase redevelopment of the former Unilever cosmetics campus — a 25-acre site with about 300,000 square feet of manufacturing, office and warehouse space. The project, called The Station for its location next to a passenger rail stop, will feature buildings named after famous train stations. The 45-unit luxury “Grand” building was completed in 2023 and is fully occupied. Massimino plans to convert at least one additional building and is considering demolishing an existing warehouse. Design work is underway, and he expects to add at least 250 more apartments. MB Financial is also working with the town to improve traffic flow and pedestrian access downtown. In Stratford, the firm paid $1.6 million in 2020 for the 148,616-square-foot former Dictaphone Corp. office building and its 9.7-acre property. Within the next three months, MB Financial plans to submit plans to convert the 1956-era building into about 100 apartments and add three new structures with another 138 units. The project, to be called The Summit, will feature a pool, dog park, fitness center and pickleball courts.

MB Financial closed on the former WWE property in Stamford in December. The four-story, glass-encased office building sits atop four levels of parking with 318 spaces. Massimino hopes to begin the conversion early next year. Plans for Titan Tower call for 84 luxury apartments, a swimming pool and shallow rooftop lounging pool. Three penthouse units and valet service are also planned, with total project costs estimated at about $25 million and construction expected to take 18 months. In Southington, MB Financial paid $1.35 million in late 2022 for a 14-acre former factory site downtown, pledging to revive a long-stalled 245-unit apartment project previously approved for another owner. Massimino expects to break ground before the end of the first quarter of 2026 on a 48-unit building and complete the roughly $20 million project in about 18 months. The first building will follow existing approvals, while Massimino said he plans to submit a new master plan for later phases that will incorporate more amenities and open space. “This (current plan) was approved 20 years ago, and trends have changed and demand has changed,” Massimino said. In Branford, Massimino’s group paid $1.6 million in 2021 for the nearly 44,000-square-foot former “Glorious Cross” monastery and its 6.4-acre property. A $12 million effort to transform the site into 59 luxury apartments for residents 55 and older is slated for completion in the first quarter of 2026, Massimino said. In Bridgeport, MB Financial has acquired three commercial buildings clustered near the mouth of the Pequonnock River. One, a former Mechanics and Farmers Bank building, had already been converted into a mixed-use property with 30 apartments when Massimino’s firm acquired it in 2021. The developer has since turned vacant office space there into another 12 apartments. MB Financial also owns the neighboring former City Savings Bank building, which it plans to transform into 30 apartments above ground-floor retail in a project expected to launch in the first half of next year. The company also owns the nearby 1897-vintage McLevy Square building, which contains 32 apartments above three retail spaces. In New Haven, MB Financial converted three buildings of the former St. Michael’s Catholic School into 23 apartments in a project completed in 2020.

More than multifamily

Though multifamily projects remain the company’s core focus, MB Financial has a growing portfolio of retail and industrial properties. In 2021, the firm paid $825,000 for a 4.2-acre lot in a retail-heavy corridor in Orange, where it has installed utilities and drainage. The site is currently leased to a contractor working on railroad improvements. Massimino said his company is planning an industrial development of the site. In 2023, MB Financial paid $7 million for the 56,000-square-foot Hitchcock Plaza on 6.25 acres in Orange. Massimino said his company plans to soon launch a multimillion-dollar project upgrading the façade and signage in the plaza, rebranding it as The Shops at Orange Marketplace. Another MB Financial affiliate paid $6 million on Oct. 1 for a 51,012-square-foot retail center on 10.3 acres in Mansfield Center. Massimino said he plans to improve the Staples-anchored plaza by adding two additional retail buildings of 2,000 to 4,000 square feet each. “Over the past several years following COVID, we have seen retail as a strong asset class in specific markets,” Massimino said. “We think there’s an opportunity to reposition older centers with excess space by adding pad sites for restaurants, banks and QSRs (quick-service restaurants).”

MB Financial is also turning its attention to the homebuyer market. The 157 townhomes planned at the former MassMutual site in Enfield will be for sale, Massimino said, as will at least some of the 17 luxury houses the company is completing in North Haven as part of its Farmview Estates development. “There’s no inventory and there is a big demand out there,” Massimino said. “There is a lot of need for housing. There is a lot of rental and there’s not a lot for sale.”